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TEAMS

Teams are complex structures. Not only do they comprise individuals with different worldviews, working styles, strengths and blindspots, but they also house the spaces between – the relational dynamics, the collective energy, the spoken and unspoken rhetoric, the exchange between the leader and the team. One of the greatest organisational assets is its high-functioning teams, and the health of the team is essential to its performance.

Every team is highly unique, so my Team Encounters are always a bespoke design. You can expect a Team Encounter to:

  • Develop psychological safety within which to explore team dynamics
  • Improve trust and working relationships
  • Reveal and reduce organisational politics
  • Boost collaboration & team productivity
  • Create clarity & engagement about purpose & priorities
  • Expose gaps and blindspots
  • Contribute to the development of talent 
  • Play an important role in enabling change
  • Develop the team’s ability to engage in productive conflict and have high impact conversations

Before I work with a team, I need to understand the context within which it operates and even more importantly, the individuals in that team. More often that not, the team members will have had initial personality profiling work done with me and some or all might be engaged in one-on-one coaching.

If we have Enneagram profiles for each team member, I will draw an Enneagram Team Report, which incorporates the profiles of each member of the team to provide:

  • Team Centres of Expression
  • Enneagram Team Style and Values
  • Enneagram Style Impact on Relationships
  • Planning, Tasks and Preferred Goals
  • Unhealthy Team Behaviours
  • Development Stages
  • Secondary Style Influences
  • Underdeveloped Styles
  • Collective Strain Profile
  • Interaction Styles
  • Conflict Styles
  • Team Instincts
  • Leadership Style & the Dynamics
    between the Team and the Leader

In order to further understand team health, I draw on Patrick Lencioni’s excellent work. His team at The Table Group (www.tablegroup.com) has developed assessments and processes that aim to improve team health and cohesiveness. I use The Table Group’s Team Assessment, based on Lencioni’s best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to reveal the extent of the following dysfunctions:

  • Absence of Trust
  • Fear of Conflict
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Avoidance of Accountability
  • Inattention to Results

Once we understand the status of the team’s health, I can better design a process that will address the issues the team might be having. It also allows us to measure the progress of the work, because the assessment can be taken multiple times.

See what clients say about the Team Encounter